Nothing to Smile About

By Carole Fleck

“The Silent Epidemic”

“The way the health care system functions, one might think the mouth isn’t connected to the whole body,”“Dental care is just as important as medical care, hospital care and pre-scription drugs,” . “It is inconsistent for society to recognize that oral health is important yet treat dental care as if it were discretion-ary.” The question is whether public pressure will force Congress to add a com-prehensive dental benefi t to Medicare now that the lawmakers have dealt with the program’s prescription drug benefit.